Federal Debt Wasn't Decreasing Before Pandemic

Misbar’s investigation found that on October 14, 2020, Trump participated in a virtual discussion with various leaders from the New York Economic Club. During this discussion, Trump said regarding the national debt: “Prior to the plague, we were starting to get that number down. We were getting that number, the interest rates were so low and we were seeing things on such a positive scale.”

Records initiate that at the end of 2018, the U.S. Total Debt was $21,974,095,705,790.55. This total incorporates both Public Debt and Intragovernmental Holdings. By the end of 2019, this figure changed to $23,201,380,134,806.73. At the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020, these numbers changed to $23,409,959,150,243.63 and are currently at $27,140,764,457,927.75 as of October 20, 2020.

As these metrics indicate, this number saw a significant increase between 2018 and 2019 and even more so during the pandemic.

While it was exacerbated by the pandemic, the national debt was increasing, not decreasing, prior to COVID-19.